The use of vehicle parking assistance devices is well known in the prior art. However, the prior art parking aid devices suffer from inconvenient and unnecessary bulk and weight, typically taking up too much space in the garage and obstructing walls and floors while in use and also while not in use. Typically, the prior art parking aid devices include floor-mounted "bump mats" which sense the tire or approaching vehicle part and transmit the contact to the driver through the chassis of the vehicle.
A second category of prior art devices includes floor-, wall- or ceiling-mounted signal transmitting units typically having rigid probes which intercept the vehicle as it is being parked. These units transmit visual and/or audio signals which are activated when the probe contacts the vehicle. Typically, such audio and/or visual parking aid devices include a transformer and electrical cord for drawing power from the household's AC circuit or include DC dry cells. Further, some prior art wall-, floor-, or ceiling-mounted parking signal devices include electrical motion sensors for sensing, without the use of a probe, the position of the vehicle as it approaches the predetermined stopping point and then emitting a signal to alert the driver to the position of the vehicle.
The bulk end complexity of the prior art devices make them expensive, lack portability, and difficult to store for use or sale.
What is needed is a small, lightweight, ceiling-suspended, easily-mounted unit which is simple to manufacture and use, has only a few parts, and is effective to indicate the position of the vehicle to the driver.